What do you propose as an alternative? I write code in a lot of languages and I can't think of a single one where I don't have to consider the version. This applies to C, node, ruby, swift, gradle/groovy and java at least. Even bash. When developing for Android and iOS, I have to consider API versions.

Almost every third party ML model I look at seems to have different versions, different dependencies, and requires deliberate trial and error when creating container images. It's a mess.

Having interpreters and packages strewn across the machine is a nightmare. The lack of standard tooling has created a lawlessly dangerous wild west. There are no maps, no guardrails, and you have to beware of the hidden snakes. It goes against the zen of python.

As a counter example, Rust packs everything in hermetically from the start. Python4 [1] could use this as inspiration. Cargo is what package and version management should be, and other languages should adopt its lessons.

[1] Let's make a clean break from Python3 even if we don't need a new version right now.

Waterluvian

Rust and Node (via nvm) feel good. The worst I run into is “this version of node isn’t installed” and then I just add it. And I don’t have to worry about where dependencies are being found. Python likes to grab them from all over my OS.

js2

I use direnv and pyenv. When I cd to a repo/directory, the .envrc selects the correct Python and the directory has its own virtual environment into which I install any dependencies. I don't find that Python grabs packages from all over the OS.

mvanbaak

> When I cd to a repo/directory, the .envrc selects the correct Python

For this you dont neet .envrc and direnv, as this is handled perfectly fine by peen itself: pyenv local

js2

pyenv explicitly does NOT manage virtual environments:

https://github.com/pyenv/pyenv

I use direnv because I work with many languages and repos and I don't want each language's version manager linked into my shell's profile. As well, direnv lets me control things besides the language version. Finally, direnv means I don't have to explicitly run any commands to set things up. I just cd to a directory.